& Friends on Technology Policy

First Amendment Architecture – Symposium Edition

The Stanford Technology Law Review has published the articles for its 2012 symposium on First Amendment Challenges in the Digital Age. You can read Marvin’s piece, entitled “The Year in ‘First Amendment Architecture'” here.

Below is an excerpt:

The core question we should focus on is whether all Americans have plentiful spaces for speech, access to diverse sources of speech, and the ability to participate in public discourse. This past year, millions of people expressed their political dissent to the powerful in physical and virtual spaces. The question of what kind of democracy we should have—a question asked here and in nations around the world—is a question we do not answer once and for all. We struggle to give answers every day through personal and collective decisions. Determining the scope of our individual free speech rights, and the general architecture of our free speech system, is fundamental to determining the kind of democracy we are capable of achieving.